San Francisco vindicator., 1887-07-30
TWO SOURCES or LOSS.
An Instructive Article on Short Rows an
Vacant Places.

TWO SOURCES Or LOSS.
An Instructive Article on Short Rows and
Vacant Places.
In planting and cultivating two small
pieces Of corn last year / was forcibly
reminded of two sources OF loss which
are quite common among farmers, yet
in many instances capable OF being
avoided. MY farm upon one side forms
an L around land owned by neigh
Dor. and on either side of this angle
planted a strip of corn of thirty -one
rows in width. That running north
and south was bounded by the rail-
road, while that running east and
west, of about the same length Gwen
ty-six rods) was separated at the end
by swale filed before my ownership
with countless loads of stone. The two
pieces, embracing about 24 acres OF
ground. required separate plowing and
separate cultivating, and necessitated
twice as much turning around in all
the operations of horse labor as would
have been necessary if the two pieces
had formed a continuous piece fifty
two rods long. The extra time taken
in blowing and narrowing each piece
by itself certainly equaled the
time of a man and team half
day, while the number OF extra
turns of horse and cultivator in culti-
waiting three times, twice in a row,
was $40. In having four ends in
stead of two double the amount OF
corn was tramped down in turning. A
state of affairs somewhat similar to
this is to be found in half the farms in
Ohio, only the short pieces lie side by
side. Unfortunately, on my own
place the lay of the land and grad
ual planting to small blocks OF trees
through period of twenty years has
made it impossible to cultivate in
long narrow strips, and ! am yearly
paying the penalty in increased labor
and expense Of cultivation. Had |
duly considered the matter twenty
years ago my different paintings OF
fruit trees would have been in par
allel rows as long as my farm would
permit instead Of in blocks of twelve
or fifteen rods square. Last year
was forced to plant my tomatoes in
small rectangular plot, forty rows
wide and nine rods long. Could / have
planted them in four rows ninety rods
long, the cultivating would have taken
less than one-third the time, simply
on account of the many turnings re-
quired saying nothing about the
plants and fruit damaged on three
rows clear around the piece.
A friend has seventy acres IN piece.
i60 rods long and every three "bouts"
with his drill complete two acres; just
three times turning at the further end
and twice at the home end does it.
Compare this with the turning neces-
sary on a flat-iron shaped piece OF two
acres and it is not difficult to estimate
the increased cost Of crops raised on
small, irregular or pointed pieces.
Another friend on prairie farm in
Western Ohio has a 140 acre field that
comes up to his barnyard and skirts
the long avenue that leads from his
house to the highway. This field is
cultivated in strips and there is no
crossing of other fields to plow the
4 d1Ssn ot Int hn the hhascF FaH tharr9f%
of travel save what may happen at the
final furrow. Of course farmers on
small, irregular or uneven farms can
not do this way, but many can do very
much more than they do in so arrang-
ing their fields as to avoid great deal
of labor. A neighbor with a nice little
farm without sloughs or hills has care
fully fenced it into fields of from four
to six acres with Virginia rail fence laid
quite crooked and fixed up with stakes
and riders to last life time. The
other loss suggested by my corn crop
was that from unoccupicd ground, a
matter that makes heavy percentage
of shortness in the corn crop every
year. In my case it was not from poor
seed; that was perfect (although kept
In an ordinary corn-crib). The piece
running north and south not being
so good soil as the other was treated to
barrel Of high-grade superphosphate,
being planted by hand in drills at
uniform distance with part of tea
spoonful under each hill. Two
kernels were dropped in place, and
failed to find half dozen hills where
both kernels did not grow. On the
other piece. six rows next, the hedges
were more than half destroyed by
chipmonks taking the seed As usual,
the re-planning came to nothing and
the plowing, narrowing and cultivat-
ing. for at least 81 rows, was all lost
This was equivalent to nearly one per
cent of the crop on the piece in
question, but know of several pieces
in my own town that had twenty to
forty per cent of waste ground from
combination of poor seed and depre-
dation of vermin. These illustrations
may lead thinking readers to endeavor
to cut off losses and expenses that
would ruin any other business except
farming. Il. B. Pierce, in ~ r Trib-
n..e